niffir

If I look for a cache and don't find it, then I post a DNF. If I go back and look some other time and don't find it, then I post another DNF. As a cache owner, I wish more people would post DNFs. I've had caches go missing that I only knew went missing because I'd not heard from them in a while and went to check on them. If people had let me know they couldn't find them, then I would have known months earlier that something was wrong...and other cachers would have known that the cache might be missing and could skip it until the situation was resolved.

There are more caches within 100 miles of my home in the US than within all of Mexico, where I sometimes live. I've only managed one cache find in all my years living part time in Jalisco (and that find was this last year when someone put one within a mile of where I have a cache there). Since I don't have a car when I am there and am traveling as a lone female nearly all the time, I'm just not able to reach or comfortable searching for most caches there. I have 2 DNF caches there, 1 find, and 1 cache that I placed. It makes me a bit sad that I'm not able to do more caching when I'm living there.

I put a book crossing book in a cache once. Unfortunately, the cache went missing after I logged it, so I never got to see if it moved from there. With so many tiny caches these days, it's not always easy to find one with enough space for a book

Definitely View Carre. I went to that one once when I was living in New Orleans, then took my hubby and our exchange student when we visited down there this spring. There are some virtuals in the French Quarter that you can hit. If you plan to head Uptown, there are quite a few tricky caches in Audubon Park. I've cached there several times and usually come up empty on them. You can get to Audubon by street car if you don't have your own transportation.

Trackables not being in the caches. When I first started, I didn't really realize that just because they were listed as being in the cache didn't mean they were actually still there. My hubby and I were very excited about the chance to go pick up a really cute travel bug from the first cache we attempted and were horribly disappointed when it wasn't there. It is still pretty disappointing, but at least I know to expect it now.

I had a lot of fun camping at Natural Bridge State park and caching at the nearby Red River Gorge.

As a cache owner this one really bugs me. I had 2 caches that just went silent this spring with no mention from anyone that there might be an issue. Since they were usually found once or twice a month, I got suspicious and headed out to check on them. Sure enough, they were gone. If someone had just bothered to write a note to let me know that there was an issue, they could have saved others the frustration of looking for a cache that wasn't there anymore. I'm proud to log my DNFs...they let the cache owner know that there may be an issue and they are a record of my failures (and sometimes my later triumphs) in my caching. I don't find every cache I set out to find (not even CLOSE to every cache) and the DNFs are a fun part of my caching history when I go check out my caching history.

It took me three tries to find my first cache, which was a relatively simple one in a large container. First time I put the coordinates in wrong and it had me pointed toward the middle of a golf course, which didn't seem right. Second time I didn't realize how far off the GPS and coordinates might put me, so I looked all around in the area where it pointed, when it was actually a little way across the trail from where I was scouring. Third time I brought my hubby along and we finally found it. I've now been caching, albeit at a much slower pace than many, since 2002. I still get quite a few DNF (did not finds), sometimes several in a row. Sometimes you are in the right mindset for for finding a particular cache and sometimes you aren't. Sometimes your GPS or their coordinates just aren't close enough for you to look in the right area. Sometimes the cache is missing or has been moved or has been buried by nature. Sometimes the hider has been extra sneaky and has it hidden in a tricky manner. I just always go out there trying to be ready to give it a good go and not be upset with myself if I can't find it. Sometimes I return another time to look for the cache, and sometimes even that doesn't help. I'm not a fan of having other cachers (particularly ones who have already found the cache) "help" me find it or of the whole "phone a friend" type of caching. For me the fun is in figuring it out myself. If someone else shows me where it is, then it just doesn't count for me and I will not ever get to claim a find on a cache. I had this happen once when some other cachers came upon my hubby and me when we were having troubles finding a cache. The other folks found it and showed us where it was, which just ruined the whole thing for me Ah well...that's way off topic Welcome to caching and don't let yourself get discouraged. As time goes by you will become more familiar with the ways in which caches are most often hidden and will develop what is known as "geosense" that will help cut down on those DNFs.

You would think it would be uncontroversial, but it isn't. One day when I was wearing a blood donation t-shirt in DC, someone came up to me and berated me about how I should be ashamed to be wearing it because of something about the policies of the Red Cross as related to blood donation. I'm beginning to think that there is nothing that doesn't offend someone.

Same here. My dad has sent me out to pick poison ivy growing in the yard before, since he reacts strongly to it. My sister manages to break out with it when working in her back yard even though there isn't any visible in her yard-- I think maybe she's getting oils that migrate into her back yard from the woods behind the fence? Anyway...I've always heard the figure that 1 in 4 people is not allergic to poison ivy. In my family that holds true. I don't know about poison oak/sumac/etc. I've never had a reaction to any of them, but perhaps I've just not rubbed against them.

There are quite a few caches in Audubon Park, many of which I've been unable to find even after multiple caching trips to the park. You can get there easily from the French Quarter area by taking the St. Charles street car. There are a few others along the way if you don't mind paying the fare to hop on and off or if you get a pass. And as others have said, View Carre is one that you should try hard to get to (as long as you aren't terrified of heights).

Never mind...it appears to have decided to work now. Erasing the giant post I had about it.

My parents live in Iowa and have not had the snow cover melt since before Christmas. I can't say that I'd be all that interested in a caching trip in that sort of weather either, even if I had a bug that needed dropped off somewhere. If his response to you was honest, then it sounds like he picked up the bug when the weather was better and planned to do some more caching. Since then there hasn't been any good weather, so he's not been out caching. You say he's logged a bunch of caches since then, but I don't have much way of checking that or knowing if he is just catching up on logs. I'd have to suggest that you just relax and wait it out. He says it will be released sometime very soon. I don't think any of my (3) travelers have moved in recent weeks/months, but I'm not that worried about it. There have been very few days in the last couple months when I would have wanted to be outdoors either.

Thanks for the responses. I passed along your messages to him.

My husband has recently become obsessed with the idea of getting Sky Caddie for his golfing adventures. I did a search in the forums about it and came up with a few threads about using a regular GPS to achieve similar results, but he wasn't terribly interested in that. So...on to his questions... He was researching them a bit and found that there are a few different models. He is wondering about the sensitivity of the different units and if anyone has recommendations as to which one would be best. He was particularly interested in learning if there is much difference between the ones with the internal antenna and those with the external. I assume that the differences would mostly be the same as between regular GPSrs with internal/external, but I don't really know what those differences are either. Any golfers (or GPS experts) out there able to give some guidance on this?

Small bladed tool with a handle used in tasks like gardening, bricklaying, and (the reason I own several) archaeology. Here's a picture of one of the gardening variety:

Well I suppose you could find caches along the route your friend took and falsely log it in some along the way. But that wouldn't really be a reflection of the bug's history any more than your just logging it as being in AZ and telling the story of how your friend found it and where it went with him

It told me it timed out...silly lying computer!

I use the model you asked about, and it works great for caching-- it holds 500 waypoints and can do basic navigation as it comes (adding a detailed mapping program like City Navigator will make it able to get you about anywhere you want). I got it as a gift 2 years ago and it cost something over $200 at that time. As others have said, the new H series is supposed to have much better sensitivity and be the same price as the older models, so you should probably take a look at that.

Been caching off and on since the spring of 2002.

Learned about it on the wheresgeorge.com forums many many years ago.

I've had one encounter with the law during my 5+ years of caching. When we parked in the country to walk on the levee to look for a cache, the person who lived nearby called the cops on us. We got pulled over soon after leaving the cache area, and the officer questioned us for a couple minutes. Despite the fact that we had no ID with us (hubby was driving and had forgotten his wallet-- I'd not brought mine along since he was driving) and the fact that my hubby sounded a bit irrational as he stumbled around giving a partial description of caching, the officer soon sent us along our way. I think he just had to come out to check us out since someone had called the cops reporting our behavior.

I know someone made some beautiful pottery geocoins earlier this year. From all reports, they were amazing to see in person and very sturdy. If your wife has the ability to make some, that would be fantastic. In order to get them to be trackable on geocaching, you would have to purchase a block of tracking numbers from geocaching. I don't know the details on minimum number of tracking numbers you must buy or how much-- I'm thinking it's something like 200 and $1.50 each, but those are probably misremembered figures. You could always make your items non-trackable signature items if you don't want to purchase tracking numbers for them.

Since it worked so well in the ballpark, I would think that the problem isn't with the unit but with the places you have been trying to use it until then. My GPS doesn't work well under tree cover and is entirely useless in valleys between steep hills and in my (cinderblock construction) apartment. That's just the nature of satellite reception. Maybe you need a more sensitive model if the reception is generally going to be bad in your area. Or perhaps you are just have a dud model that is working sometimes and not at others-- you could try returning it to Walmart and getting a replacement to see if the situation improves or maybe borrowing a GPS from someone else to see if you encounter a similar problem around your home.

I don't know if Kentucky has a challenge going on or not, but I have a mere 16 counties (out of 120). I don't even know if there are caches hidden in all the counties, though I assume there probably are by now. According to INATN, I've traveled over 10,000 miles between my caches...not bad for fewer than 200 finds